POTTSTOWN — No one would blame Tyler Bauman if he filed for the baseball equivalent of non-support.

Whether due to a lack of runs or shoddy defense on the previous occasions he took the mound, the Boyertown junior left-hander’s three decisions were all losses heading into Friday’s Pioneeer Athletic Conference contest against Pottstown.

“Tyler’s been throwing some good ball for us,” Bears coach Todd Moyer said. “He’s just been in some tough situations where we made a couple mistakes. He has three losses, but he hasn’t deserved any of them. He’s done a good job pitching.”

Bauman’s perseverance was finally rewarded against the Trojans, as he struck out five over five innings to help Boyertown come away with a 3-1 victory at Shantz Field.

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Bauman and fellow lefty Brandon Griesemer combined on a four-hitter, Griesemer went 2-for-2 with one RBI and Daulton Weeks drove in two runs for the Bears (9-4 PAC-10, 9-5 overall).

“As the game went on, I got more in the zone,” Bauman said. “I started throwing a lot more strikes and just felt more relaxed.”

The Bears’ lineup got Bauman a couple of runs to work with right off the bat in a two-run first inning — when leadoff Zach Moser drew a walk, Corey Fox reached on an infield single and Weeks eventually plated both of them with a two-out Texas Leaguer that dropped between three Trojans in shallow right-center.

“That was huge,” said Bauman. “Having the guys come up and start the game off with two runs, it helped me settle down and just worry about throwing strikes.”

Utilizing a tailing fastball, curve and change, Bauman allowed four hits and walked four against the Trojans (8-5, 9-6), who had opportunities but stranded six runners over the first three innings.

Pottstown cut it to 2-1 in the second when Joey Schaaf led off with a single, stole second, took third on an error and scored on a sacrifice fly by Richy Masciarelli.

Boyertown, however, answered with a two-out bad-hop RBI single from Griesemer in the fourth, and Bauman and Griesemer combined to limit Pottstown to just one hit over the final five frames.

“Wasted opportunities, man,” said Pottstown coach Jeff Evans, whose team lost its third straight game. “How many guys did we leave on third base with less than two outs? If we can’t hit a fly ball or ground ball in that situation we don’t deserve to win.”

With a runner on third and two outs in the fifth, Boyertown right fielder Dalton Hughes made a diving grab on Derek Beyer’s liner to end the threat.

Griesemer, a junior, came on in the sixth and retired all six batters he faced.

“Today we made the plays, our pitchers threw well, we moved runners when we needed to and we came up with some big clutch hits,” Bauman said.

The emergence of Bauman and Griesemer has helped Boyertown fill a void left by the absence of top lefty Dan Woodley, who is currently out with a strained shoulder suffered earlier this month and might not be back.

“You lose a guy like Dan and you need guys to step up,” Moyer said. “Tyler’s done a good job, (fellow starter) Mitch Renninger did a good job against them (the Trojans) the first time, and Griesemer’s been our short-relief guy to come in and throw strikes, and he did that again today.”

Which helped the Bears — who defeated first-place Spring-Ford 2-0 Wednesday night at Bear Stadium — continue to bounce back from a midseason slump of sorts.

“We’ve got to be averaging three errors a game, but we’re still only giving up a couple run a game,” Moyer said. “We lost four games by one run. For me, it was more of a lack of execution of the little things on offense and the fact that we weren’t playing good defense. The last couple games we’ve played solid defense and we won some big games.”

While the Bears moved into a first-place logjam that also includes Phoenixville (8-3), Spring-Ford (9-4) and Methacton (9-4), the Trojans find themselves a game behind in the chase for a coveted Final Four playoff berth with five league games remaining.

“We’re running out of time and running out of opportunities,” Evans said. “It’s a situation in our last few game where we’re almost like sitting back waiting for them (the opponent) to make a mistake, rather than going out and making something happen, and you can’t play like that.”

NOTES

Bailey Brown absorbed the loss, striking out four over five innings while allowing seven hits and four walks. ... Jason Hydier and Masciarelli each tossed one inning of scoreless relief for the Trojans. ... Fox was 2-for-4 with one run, Luke Stong was 2-for-3 and Moser scored two runs for the Bears. ... Schaaf stole two bases for Pottstown.